Building a Multi-Million Dollar Brand with Guido
In 18 months, Guido built a $5 million brand and created $4 million of value for his collectors. 2/3 of the value resulted from the elaborate game Guido has been playing with his editions holders.
Those who have launched an NFT collection say that the mint is the easy part. The real work starts after selling out. Shipping innovative product, creating delightful experiences, exploring collaborations, negotiating partnerships, while spending time with their collectors and expanding their reach is a 24/7 endeavor. It takes a team of aligned and committed minds to build a lasting brand.
It’s similar for artists. The very best who are widely recognized and whose work is highly sought after show up consistently. They swing for the fences, not afraid to be misunderstood or laughed at. They experiment, make mistakes, and push the boundaries of their creativity not only to stand out, but also to contribute to the space that’s created an opportunity for them in the first place.
For every 50 artists that enter the space and gross 1 ETH ($1,300), there is only one that rises to stardom. Web3 is a competitive space. Many gain momentum, but very few are able to sustain it and build on it.
Fashion photographer Guido Di Salle is an innovator who has consistently tested his limits. He’s vocal and opinionated. He’s daring and controversial. Staying true to his vision, Guido has built one of the most powerful brands in web3, inspired and supported hundreds of his fellow artists, and created enormous value for his collectors.
Fashion photographer who shot for GQ and Playboy, Guido Di Salle is the top-10 highest grossing photographer in web3. In two years, he earned over 600 ETH ($1.5 million). His collections traded over 1,000 ETH ($1.5 million) on the secondary market. His body of work which comprises two collections, multiple editions, and premium 1/1s is valued at 3,800 ETH ($5 million).
What’s even more remarkable is that Guido created 3,100 ETH ($4 million) of net value for his collectors, i.e., those who believed in him and supported him early on. One third of this value, i.e. 1,200 ETH ($1.6 million), came from his premium 1/1s on SuperRare as they appreciated from 3-4 ETH in August 2021 to 55 ETH a year later. Two thirds of the value resulted from the elaborate game Guido has been playing with his editions holders for almost a year.
Editions Hit the Mainstream
In the traditional art world, editions are copies of the original master artwork and made in batches of a set size. They are often signed or sanctioned by the artist. In digital art, specifically NFTs, there have been two main types of editions: open editions (uncapped set size available for purchase during a specific time frame – as short as 10 minutes, as long as 7 days) and limited editions (capped set size, available for purchase until completely sold out).
Although open editions have existed since 2020, they only captured the mainstream attention in December 2022. Struggling to sell their premium 1/1 work in such challenging market, many artists introduced their work as low-priced editions, making their work more affordable and therefore allowing more people to collect their work. Manifold and Nifty Gateway, platforms that provide tools to launch art on the blockchain, helped artists gross over $10 million in the last two weeks of the year.
The majority of these editions followed the same playbook – available to mint for 24-72 hours, large mint count (100+), low price ($50-100), chance of “burn” in the future, thereby incentivizing collectors to buy more than one piece. (In NFTs, burning means exchanging an edition from the original art series for an edition from a new series. The “burned” NFT seizes to exist, thereby reducing the count in the original series.)
Of 100+ major editions released since December, over 80% haven’t held value. Listed below the original mint price, there has been no demand for these editions as indicated by the lack of secondary sales or even bids from buyers. Hence, unlike premium 1/1s or unique pieces from collections, editions have been poor investments and store of value, and have been primarily means to collect art out of pure enjoyment and support artists.
Guido Editions: Standing Out In a Crowd
At a first glance, Guido editions are like all the other ones in the market. They are, first and foremost, art that is meant to be appreciated in its purest form. However, unlike 90% of editions, Guido’s have consistently captured attention and accrued value. If you have been following Guido’s editions game, i.e., minting, collecting, and burning editions along the way, you’ve netted 5 ETH of profit in less than a year. Guido editions are the 3rd most actively traded photography series of all time, with over 1,000 ETH of volume in the last 12 months.
Guido editions are one of the largest art collections on the blockchain and include 28 unique photographs. Some are ultra rare editions of 8. Others count as many as 9,000 editions. There is a common thread across all 28 photographs – they are part of the same game in which collectors are offered to exchange (i.e., “burn”) the photographs they own for new ones, and new photographs are introduced only to be burned in the future.
Why do this? Editions are an effective way for an artist to expand their family of collectors by decreasing the cost of entry for their aspiring patrons. Introducing the burn mechanism helps grow and strengthen the artist-collector relationship over time.
Choice: Collecting art is personal. Introducing new editions and giving collectors a choice – keep the photographs they own or swap for the ones they love more – is an effective way to build a deeper relationship in which collectors become cocreators of the artist’s universe.
Exclusivity: By exchanging photographs from one series, collectors receive photographs from the series that has a lower mint count and is therefore rarer. Typically, two or more photographs are required to obtain one from the new series.
Value: By allowing collectors to upgrade to rarer series, Guido involves his collectors into the process of value creation. It’s up to collectors to decide if they want to hold on to the original piece or obtain the new one. While the new ones tend to be more scarce (i.e., have lower mint count) and hence more valuable, the old ones have the provenance of being an earlier work, see their supply decrease as editions are burned for new work, and accrue value over time.
Sicilian Kiss: The Journey Begins
The game started with Sicilian Kiss, an open edition which was a free mint (mint means sale), in April 2021. Guido had already become the top grossing artist whose work, fetching 50 ETH ($150,000) a piece, was out of reach for 99.99% of collectors. Even his limited editions Sending My Love were selling for over 1 ETH ($3,000). Sicilian Kiss was a gateway into Guido’s world for those who aspired to own his artwork but couldn’t afford it. Moreover, sharing his work for free, Guido made a strong statement directed at thousands of greedy collectors demanding utility from artists.
14,812 Sicilian Kisses were collected by over 10,000 people in five hours. The price climbed to 0.03 ETH ($60) by the end of the next day. Even if someone missed the free mint, they could still buy as many Sicilian Kisses as they wanted at a reasonable price.
Collectors were soon rewarded. A month later, Guido announced an opportunity to exchange 10 Sicilian Kisses for a set of four editions (Meet Me & L’Estate series), four photographs Guido took on a trip to Sicily with his father in 2016. Collectors rushed to scoop up Sicilian Kisses on the secondary market, driving up the price from 0.03 ETH ($60) to 0.06 ETH ($120). In the end, 4,050 Sicilian Kisses were exchanged for 405 sets of four shots.
Two months later, Guido hinted that in the future there would be opportunities to swap Meet Me & L’Estate series for new editions. Collectors began to realize that Sicilian Kiss wasn’t a one-off experiment, but rather the beginning of a thoughtfully curated journey to share his passion for art, engage and reward collectors, build a strong community, and have fun along the way.
Collection Grows. So Does the Community.
As promised, Guido continued to release new work. As collectors engaged in the editions game, swapping Sicilian Kisses for new photographs, the supply of the existing editions fell and their prices rose. Meanwhile, the new series were fetching a premium because of their lower supply.
Between November and January, almost 6,000 Sicilian Kisses and 320 editions of Meet Me series had been swapped for new editions. Meanwhile, Guido launched two new open editions – Monkey Business and New Years Resolution, 2023 – which also kickstarted their own editions games.
In nine months, Guido expanded his collection from two photographs to 28. Hundreds of holders voiced their concerns that Guido was releasing too much new work and diluting the supply. The fact of the matter is that the opposite was happening. New work attracted new collectors as they found something with which they resonated more. They collected it and shared about it on Twitter, raising awareness of the Guido editions.
Despite the new work being released, the total supply of editions continued to decrease. Sicilian Kiss which started with 14,812 editions saw its count shrink by 40% to 9,009. What started as a free mint effectively became the currency in the Guido universe to obtain new work and, most importantly, shape the future of the collection.
Great content! ❤
Brilliant coverage and insights as always.